Edward St. John Gorey (1925-2000) is probably the most popular illustrator of many of John Bellairs' books, as well as a well-known author and illustrator in his own right. Gorey's bizarre stories and macabre black-and-white illustrations reflected an elegantly morbid sense of humor in books, on the stage and on television that made him one of the most distinctive American illustrators.
His costume design for the Broadway production of "Dracula" won a Tony Award in 1978. Mr. Gorey also wrote at least 90 books and illustrated 60 others. Most showed vaguely Edwardian characters in bleak settings, reacting in prim distress to strange situations, such as the intrusion of a penguinlike, sneaker-wearing creature (The Doubtful Guest, published in 1957).
A set published in 1963 under the title The Vinegar Works; Three Volumes of Moral Instruction,featured a grisly alphabet book, The Gashlycrumb Tinies, in which "A is for Amy, who fell down the stairs" and "X is for Xerxes, devoured by mice."
The book was included in Amphigorey, an anthology of 15 stories Putnam published in 1972, that brought Mr. Gorey's work to a wider audience. It was followed in 1974 by Amphigorey Too and Amphigorey Also in 1983.
"To take my work seriously would be the height of folly," Mr. Gorey told the Associated Press in 1994. He said most of his material was aimed at "reasonably small children," whom he did not believe were scared by the sinister subject matter.
Mr. Gorey was born in Chicago and attended Harvard University, where his roommate was poet Frank O'Hara. After college, Mr. Gorey began illustrating book covers for Doubleday and working on his own novels, none of which he finished. He eventually turned to the smaller books on which he built his career, often using rhyme to tell weird tales with dark humor. Gorey also designed sets and costumes for a number of theater productions, and staged his own "Gorey Stories" in 1978 in New York.
In the 1980s, Mr. Gorey moved to Cape Cod, where he led a small theater troupe that performed his works in plays and puppet shows. At the same time, his characters made the leap to television in the opening and closing titles of the PBS series "Mystery!"
Gorey died Saturday, April 15, 2000 at a hospital near his Cape Cod home after a heart attack. He was 75. His design for The Beast Under the Wizard's Bridge was his last completed bookwork, having illustrated 21 books by John Bellairs and Brad Strickland.
This article contains text Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
